A blog to share my research of the Ball family in Devon, England and Glamorgan, Wales.

Monday, 3 October 2011

Mary Meade McPhee (1910-1997) - The Grand Dame of the Ball Family

Mary Meade McPhee was my paternal grandmother, also known as the "Grand Dame of the Ball Family", as my Dad used to call her. She was born in Abbotsford, British Columbia on 20 February 1910. Her parents were Alexander Magnus McPhee and Naomi Baynes. Mary was the third of 5 chlildren born to Alex and Naomi. Her siblings were Elsie, Naomi, Borden and James.

She trained as a nurse at the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminister BC and graduated around 1929. She met my Granddad at the Royal Columbian when she helped nursed my great-grandfather, Thomas Huxtable Ball. Bill and Mary were married on 4 June 1932 in New Westminster. Together, they raised two sons. Mary was active in the Royal Victorian of Nurses of British Columbia. She preferred to be called 'Nana' rather than Grandma and was a doting grandmother of 6 grandchildren. Following Bill's death in 1971, she returned to the BC mainland to live closer to her sister, Naomi and her other siblings. She also liked to travel - visiting her son and his family in Ontario and travelling with her sisters on holiday in the US. She died on 1 May 1997 in Langley (?), BC.

McPhee is variably spelled "MacPhee", but Nana always used McPhee when writing about her family.